Inside Norway’s $1.7 Trillion Wealth Machine
Legendary Investor Series
"Fortune favors the prepared mind."
— Louis Pasteur
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Norway has the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, amounting to about $1.7 trillion or about $303,000 for each Norwegian citizen. This is the result of prudent financial management over the decades, investing surplus oil income (Norway is an oil producer) and investing the money very wisely.
It is said that difficulties in childhood can make the best adults. Well, that is certainly true for Norway. The beginning of Norway goes back to the Viking Age, during which the Vikings traded with Europe and raided Europe. While the all-important trading aspects of Viking culture are mostly forgotten, the raiding aspect of Viking culture became part of popular culture with movies like “The Vikings” (1958) starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis, U.S. comic strips like “Hägar the Horrible,” “The Muppet Show - In the Navy,” and many more.
Hägar the Horrible
The Muppet Show - In the Navy
History matters as it forms the culture of a country. For Norway, its difficult journey to today’s Norway explains much of its economic decisions.
Coming back to Norway’s beginning, the various Viking cultures consolidated into a single Kingdom of Norway in 872 AD. And it stayed independent for the next few hundred years until it joined a union with Denmark and Sweden (1397). Thereafter, many changes happened. Suffice to say that Norway, during the next few hundred years (1397 to 1905), never regained independence again, except for one short year (1814). Norway regained independence in 1905 and stayed that way until it was occupied in 1940 by Germany and regained independence again after the end of World War II (1945).
Norway did well economically but wasn’t a wealthy country until massive oil reserves were discovered in the 1960s. After building out the oil industry, in 1990, Norway decided to establish a sovereign wealth fund (a fancy term for the country’s investment fund), called the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG).
History matters as it often drives the decisions. If you were not rich for most of your history and not independent, then these are things you protect carefully given the opportunity. Norway today is a prudently run country with a low debt-to-GDP ratio, a massive wealth fund (GPFG), and unlike most European nations, it didn’t join the Euro and kept its currency, the Norwegian krone (NOK).
If there’s one entity that highlights Norway's culture and prudent financial management and long-term planning, it is the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), also called the Oil Fund. Many countries would live the high life upon discovering massive oil reserves. Norway was smarter. It decided to establish the GPFG fund to invest surplus revenues from oil to benefit not only current citizens but also protect the financial future of generations of Norwegians yet to come.
Norway not only invests surplus oil revenue every year, it also invests very wisely – extremely wisely. In fact, much of the growth of Norway’s oil fund comes from investment returns.
Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global – Financial Performance (in Billion Kroner)
Source: https://www.nbim.no/en/investments/the-funds-value/
Today, they have the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund with a value of about $1.7 trillion US dollars (about 19,704 billion kroner). That is about $303,000 for each Norwegian citizen. The fund invests worldwide and currently owns 1.5% of all listed companies worldwide. That is massive.
The fund is managed by Norges Bank Investment Management, and a smart investor can learn a lot from them. They made some smart choices recently that helped any investor who was paying attention. Let’s take a closer look.
So many public companies, so many choices – how do you narrow them down?
In the US, there are currently roughly 4,300 public companies, and worldwide, including the US, there are about 58,000 public companies. The great news is there are about 58,000 companies to choose from. The bad news is there are about 58,000 companies to choose from. How do you narrow that down?
Sources: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/09/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html & https://focus.world-exchanges.org/articles/number-listed-companies
For many US investors, the first cut will be practical. What is practically available through your broker? In the US, that is typically limited to stocks traded on US stock exchanges, foreign stocks traded on US stock exchanges (ADRs – read here to learn more about ADRs and risks to keep in mind), and foreign stocks available at internationally minded US brokers (for example, Interactive Brokers) that allow you to purchase foreign stocks at foreign stock exchanges through their US platform.
Even more foreign stocks are available for any US investor willing to open a brokerage account overseas; however such an investor would have to deal with additional US regulatory reporting (FBAR, FATCA, etc.) and risks inherent in such regulatory reporting (potential heavy penalties for non-reporting, etc.).
In addition, and this may sound surprising, US investors are as popular as lepers with many non-US brokers outside the US, with many outright declining US citizens as customers. This is due to the US government requiring its own tax avoidance reporting standard (FBAR, FATCA) instead of joining the worldwide standard (CRS) used by most of the world. Due to the increased costs of maintaining two tax reporting standards, one for the world (CRS) and one for the US (FBAR, FATCA), many non-US brokers overseas prefer to decline US customers. Non-US brokers overseas willing to accept US customers can still be found, but be prepared to look for a bit.
On that happy note, let’s continue. For the purpose of this discussion, let’s assume all 58,000 companies are accessible to you. How do you narrow that down to a manageable set? Many legendary US investors who file SEC reports in the US tend to focus on US companies. There are, of course, exceptions, like the legendary Michael Burry and his significant Chinese investments (read about it here). But on the whole, many tend to focus on US companies. Others, who are more internationally minded, like the legendary Jim Rogers, with significant investments all over the world, just invest their own significant wealth, and that is not reported anywhere—other than what is shared by Rogers in public interviews here and there.
This is what makes the Norwegian Oil Fund so interesting. It invests its $1.7 trillion investments all around the world in 70 countries—and the information is all publicly available.
Norwegian Oil Fund Global Investments
Source: https://www.nbim.no/en/investments/all-investments/#/2024/
So, what can we learn from the publicly available information about the Norwegian Oil Fund's investments?
Norwegian Oil Fund Investments
The Oil Fund invests its $1.7 trillion investments in equities, fixed income, real estate, and renewable energy infrastructure. The distribution, as of December 31, 2024, is as follows:
71.4% Equities
26.6% Fixed Income
1.8% Real Estate
0.1% Renewable Energy Infrastructure
This analysis will focus on the equity part of the Norwegian Oil Fund. The Norwegian Oil Fund has made 8,659 equity investments in 63 countries. I will focus, in this analysis, on the top investments, and further down in the article, I will also highlight some recent significant public announcements that happened after the last portfolio snapshot (as of December 31, 2024) was published.
Here is the complete list of all 8,659 equity investments in 63 countries as a PDF file and as an Excel file:
PDF FILE
Excel File
Source: https://www.nbim.no/en/investments/all-investments/#/2024/investments/equities
Norwegian Oil Fund – Top Investments
As mentioned above, the Norwegian Oil Fund has made 8,659 equity investments in 63 countries. Way too many to cover them all. Let’s look at a couple of different cuts to identify the major holdings and holdings of interest.
First, while the equity portfolio is invested in 63 countries, about 90.2% is invested in 12 countries, and the rest of 9.8% is invested in 51 countries. More than half (55.9%) of the equity investments are in the US. What is interesting to note, among the top 12 countries, is that next to the expected countries, like the US, Japan, UK, Switzerland, Germany, France, Canada, and the Netherlands, it is also invested in two major BRICS countries (4th is China and 8th is India) and also in Taiwan and Australia.
Data source: https://www.nbim.no/en/investments/all-investments/#/2024/investments/equities
The international focus will become ever more important in the years to come. Much of the economic dynamism is now outside the West (US, EU, Japan, etc.), and if you traveled, for example, to India, China, or Qatar, you'd be surprised at how different reality is compared to what you see in our media. That is not to say that the US, EU, and Japan are not growing, but the countries outside the West have grown fast, continue to grow fast, and provide a much better risk/reward potential in terms of P/E ratio than many investments in the West.
It is hard to fully understand that without visiting those countries. That is why legendary investor Jim Rogers traveled the world twice. First on a motorcycle when he was single, and again by car, after he got married. And by "world," I mean the world and not just the US, Europe, and Japan. He said it changed his investment perspective permanently.
Jim Rogers and His Wife’s Journey around the World
Source: https://www.jimrogers.com/home-map-image/
We all need to do what we believe is best for us, but for internationally minded investors, the list of 8,659 equity investments in the 63 countries is a great lead list—a potential gold mine, if you will.
At the same time, and while that shouldn’t deter you, be aware that foreign companies can be subject to US sanctions, including foreign companies listed on US stock exchanges, which can force investors to sell at an inconvenient time (e.g. China Mobile) or even be frozen for an undetermined time (e.g. Russian ADRs). However, as other countries have become more powerful, they started to sanction back. For example, in early January 2025, China sanctioned 45 major US companies.
Sanctions used to be a “free” tool for the US government (not free to US investors) to try to implement its foreign policy objectives. Well, it is now not “free” anymore, as countries are sanctioning back and that hurts major US businesses. As sanctions moved from being a one-sided tool (just our tool) to a mutual tool, this should bring a reduction of US sanctions in the years to come. As said above, none of this should deter you from investing in foreign companies as the returns are too juicy, but it calls for sanctions risk monitoring and proper risk management, meaning limit your exposure by country and by company.
Having said that, let’s come back to the Norwegian Oil Fund equity portfolio.
If you look at the portfolio sorted by company across the world (see below), the portfolio is very diversified. The top 12 companies constitute about 21.9% of the total portfolio, with 78.1% spread over 8,647 companies. The single largest investment, as of December 31, 2024, is Apple, followed by Microsoft and Nvidia. However, based on a recent public announcement (see below), you can expect to see some changes to the US equity investments.
Data source: https://www.nbim.no/en/investments/all-investments/#/2024/investments/equities
Of note is also Bitcoin-related investment by the Norwegian Oil Fund. With only 0.04%, it is not part of the top 12 graph above, but about 0.04% ($514 million US dollars) is invested in MicroStrategy, the leveraged play on Bitcoin (click here to learn more).
Let’s imagine that for diversification purposes, you want to invest, for example, in India or Singapore, but you don’t know enough about the countries to select a company. You could invest in a country ETF, and that is certainly one option.
But instead of looking at the hundreds or thousands of companies by country, you can see which companies the Norwegian Oil Fund invested in. In a sense, they did the legwork for you. Could it be that they overlooked some companies? Sure, that is possible. But the companies they invested in survived their screening process, and that is a lot of legwork taken care of for you or me. So, let’s, as an example, look at the top companies in the two mentioned countries.
Top 5 Equity Investments in India
If I wanted to invest in India (and I am looking into it as the legendary investor Jim Rogers is very bullish on India), I would probably either pick a country ETF or start with the top 5 Indian companies that the Norwegian Oil Fund invested in, namely HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, and Infosys (see graph below).
Mumbai, India - Skyline
I would, of course, still need to do my homework, but it is nice to have a list that made it past the screening process of the Norwegian Oil Fund.
Data source: https://www.nbim.no/en/investments/all-investments/#/2024/investments/equities
Top 5 Equity Investments in Singapore
Similarly, if I wanted to invest in Singapore, I would probably either pick a country ETF or start with the top 5 Singaporean companies that the Norwegian Oil Fund invested in, namely Sea Ltd, DBS Group Holdings, United Overseas Bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, and Singapore Telecommunications.
Singapore Skyline
As I mentioned above, I would still need to do my homework for each of these companies before investing.
Data source: https://www.nbim.no/en/investments/all-investments/#/2024/investments/equities
Since the Norwegian Oil Fund made equity investments in 63 countries around the world, if you are considering investing in one of those 63 countries and want to shortcut the selection process, here is the complete list of all 8,659 equity investments in 63 countries as a PDF file and as an Excel file:
PDF FILE
Excel File
Source: https://www.nbim.no/en/investments/all-investments/#/2024/investments/equities
This list is a great tool for any internationally minded investor.
Recent Public Announcements
While the Norwegian Oil Fund made a lot of money due to its investments in the US Magnificent 7 (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Tesla), it now seems to consider changing its investments significantly.
Last month in January 2025, the CEO of the Norwegian Oil Fund said,
“The best thing to do is always to do the opposite of everybody else. What will that be today? Well, if you were to do the opposite of everybody else, it would be to sell the US tech stocks, buy China, sell private credit, just buy stuff that is out of fashion. The concentration is absolutely worrying. It means that there is a risk in the stock market which we have never seen before.”
So in a nutshell, he is recommending 3 things:
Sell US tech stock
Buy China (as legendary investors Michael Burry and Jim Rogers already did)
Sell private credit, meaning sell the non-public credit they have such as loans to companies, real estate, and other private entities. In an economic downturn (if there is one), they are hard to get rid of and could be a risk to the Oil Fund. Thus the fund is proactively reducing its exposure to private credit while times are still good.
Saying that it may be time for investors to sell stocks that have risen so much and may even rise some more, like the Magnificent 7, is a good recipe for becoming very unpopular very fast. However, I think what the CEO of the Norwegian Wealth Fund is referring to is that while there may be some more upside in the Magnificent 7, there is now a lot of downside risk.
Very few investors, if any, can call the bottom or the top of a market. I think his thinking is that there may be some more upward juice there for the Mag 7, but if the market mood were ever to change on the Magnificent 7, they could come down quite a bit. I am not saying that the Mag 7 are coming down anytime soon (who knows), but the downside risk is now significant. In other words, from their perspective, better to take the winnings and invest in something (e.g., China) that is currently much more favorable in terms of upside potential vs. downside risk.
Summary
The Norwegian Wealth Fund is one of the best-run funds out there, and with $1.7 trillion US dollars under management, it is the world’s largest wealth fund. It is truly an internationally run fund with a great track record. Given that there are about 4,300 public companies in the US, and there are about 58,000 public companies worldwide (including the US), their investment list (link above) is a great resource to look for companies to invest in.
Of course, one always needs to do one’s homework before investing, but having a great team, like the Norwegian Oil Fund doing the pre-screening, is very helpful.
If you want to look for a great company to invest in among the 63 countries in which the Norwegian Oil Fund has equity investments, look no further than their latest Norwegian Oil Fund investment list.
Thank you for reading the article. Hope you enjoyed it.
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Thanks for this ! Like others I didn't realize they were fully transparent. Unfortunately now you have peaked my curiosity, as the list does not extend to their own country. So now i'm quite curious as to their holdings in domestic firms. An (admittedly brief) look at their website came up empty... so i'm wondering if you may have some insight into this ?
This is so helpful. They caught my attention when they interviewed Howard Marks (my favorite investor) months back.